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SubOne Learning Differences

Ryan Leis
David Perrodin
EDUC 506 - Inclusion
14 December 2015

Bill Porter Plan

This is a classroom plan based on information from our Inclusion
textbook for a student with special needs.

I am a High School English teacher in a rural Wisconsin school

district. Today I learned that my school will be getting a new student
this year whose name is Bill Porter. Bill has cerebral palsy and will
require certain special accommodations in the classroom and I have
been asked to be one of the leaders in our district to make sure that
we are properly prepared for Bills arrival. This is a task that I am
looking forward to as I view it not as a burden, but as an opportunity.
An opportunity to make someones life better as well as an opportunity
for myself and others at the school to learn more about a very unique
and inspiring individual and the disability that he is dealing with.
The first thing that I need to do is to learn about Bill and his
disability. I would do this by first contacting Bills family. We learned
from the video that his father died at an early age, but the video

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seemed to show that his mother was Bills biggest ally and would
probably be one of my biggest allies as long as I showed to her that I
was invested and cared about her son getting the best education that I
could. I would talk to Irene about her son and his disability. What
accommodations that our school will need to make, and what Bill is
capable of doing on his own. I would hope that Irene can give me
some insight to cerebral palsy as well. The thing I would hope to get
from Irene the most though is insight into Bills personality. What is he
like, what does he like to do, what interests him, what motivates him
and so on. I would hope to be able to build a rapport with Irene so that
we could work together throughout Bills career as a student.
I would also hope to sit down with Bill himself. Hoping to start to
build a positive relationship with him. Ask him what he is interested in,
what he is not interested in, what his goals are as far as education and
his career afterwards. After all who could possibly know more about
Bill than himself, and who could possibly help me understand him
better than himself. I think maybe I was wrong to say that Irene could
be my strongest ally; I would hope that Bill will be my strongest ally,
and getting to know him early on would help to cultivate that
relationship.
I would then contact Bills previous school to begin a dialogue as
to what they can tell me about Bill and how they made their school
accommodating to his needs. I would ask to speak to the

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administrators about steps the school took at the district level, such as
setting up a district or community support group for Bill, as well as any
information as to resources the district can provide that I should bring
up to my own administrators. I would ask to talk to Bills former
teachers and assistants as well. I would talk to them about the steps
they took to help Bill be successful in their classrooms. What worked
for them, what didnt work, what Bill needs and what Bill can do on his
own. I would also ask them what Bill is like, what did he show interest
in, what type of personality he has, what are his hobbies and so on. I
would also ask to speak with as many of his classmates as I could. I
think this would be invaluable, his classmates have interacted with Bill
on a personal level day after day and any insight that they could
provide about what Bill is like and how he impacted them. Did they
view Bill as a burden or as just another student, somewhere in
between? I think it is important to understand Bill as a person.
I went onto cerebralpalsy.org and I would absolutely use that
website as a resource to understand the condition and how to best
deal with it. It has a lot of good information on the condition itself as
well as resources and stories of people who have the condition.
Once I have collected as much information about Bill as I possibly
could, the next step would be to inform everyone else at the school
about Bill and his disability. One possibility I would consider is to hold a
school assembly in which maybe a video about cerebral palsy was

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shown or perhaps a guest speaker could come in and speak about it.
This would be an efficient way to inform the entire school, but if that
was the route I took I would want to spend some more in depth time
with the specific classmates in Bills grade. I would take the time to
share more personal information about Bill with them and begin a
dialogue with them about how we are going to best handle the
challenges and opportunities that Bill will present. I would want to
hear some feedback from them as well as one of the stories in the
class text talked about how well that worked to include all of the
students I the process.
I imagine that several meetings would be held with the faculty at
my school to share information about Bill and cerebral palsy. I would
hope this would spur conversations between the staff helping them to
be proactive in creating the best possible atmosphere for Bill and the
other students. I would want all faculty to be present, but especially
the faculty whose classrooms Bill will be in as well as administrators.
Being well prepared on a district level will be essential.
As far as informing parents around the community about Bill I
think a good idea would be to put a profile of Bill in a school newsletter.
Introducing him to the community and explaining his situation so that
everyone can be aware of it and encouraging them to learn more about
cerebral palsy. I would put a picture of Bill in there as well so that

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when people saw him around the community they would know who he
is.
I feel like I need to take a section to talk about the fact that I
dont feel that Bill will be a burden. We know that he is fully capable
mentally of a rigorous academic load, his disabilities are physically. I
dont want what I am saying to come off like he is someone who is not
capable of being a normal student, because he absolutely is, and I
would hope that this comes across when I inform the faculty and
students and community about Bill.
This feels like a good transition to talk about the challenges
that Bill may bring to our school, because even though he is a fully
capable student there will be some. Like I stated before these
challenges will be physical. According the video and information that I
would hope to get from my research on Bill his main challenges are
walking, use of his hands, a chronic back ailment, and with his speech.
So challenges could arise with getting Bill around the school, writing,
typing, and communication.
There are several accommodations that I would make for Bill.
The video explained that Bill was very regimented, and that he needed
help tying shoes and buttoning shirts and stuff, so if that was not
something he could have done at home I would make sure that there
was someone there at school when he arrived to help him with that.
He may take more time to get from class to class so I would not grade

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Bill for tardiness and I would allow for Bill to leave class a couple
minutes early if his next class was not close to the room he is in. Bill
may have trouble carrying all of his books because of his limited use of
hands so I would likely have another student or an assistant help him
to transport his school supplies. Another option could be to have some
sort of motorized or electronic wheelchair, but judging from the video
Bill might refuse something like this because he wants to get himself
around.
Bill would obviously have trouble taking notes during class so I
would either provide him with the necessary notes or have another
student share their notes with him. Bill can type and use a computer,
but the limited use of his hands makes him less efficient at it, but I
would allow him to have one in class to use when he needed it. Bill will
likely require more time to complete assignments that he does on his
own, so I would give him more time when necessary, but I would also
try to make it so Bill had an assistant to help transcribe things when
that would be possible or to incorporate group work when possible
because Bill would be able to share ideas but not have the physical
burden that an individual assignment might require.
As an English teacher a lot of my class will be built around small
and large group discussion so it will be important that students and
myself are able to understand Bills speech. This is something that will
take a concerted effort and may take time to get use to, but ultimately

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would be beneficial to Bill because it would likely not be as much
writing for him. There are generally long papers involved in English so
I would do two things, and that would be to give Bill extra time to
complete them as stated before, or shorten the length requirements
for Bill. When taking an exam I would likely have an assistant with
him, not necessarily because he needs one to help with the content,
but to possibly do the writing so that Bill could complete it within the
time requirement, or possibly create an exam that Bill could take using
a computer.
I would encourage Bill to participate in extra-curricular activities
and encourage the advisors for the activities to facilitate him as well.
Unfortunately most sports would be difficult for Bill to participate in
because of his physical limitations, but there might be some he could
join like perhaps bowling or something like that. If he really liked a
particular sport that he wasnt physically capable of playing I would
encourage him to take up a position of student manager or something
like that. Other extra-curricular activities I would encourage him to join
as well, as an English teacher I would suggest the drama club. There
are instruments that Im sure he could play in the band, there are
things like chess club, FBLA, FFA, FCLA that would all be great for Bill to
participate in and also be a great chance for him to interact with his
classmates outside of school.

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Bill seems like an extraordinary person with a lot of ambition and
capabilities. I dont want his physical limitations to hinder the life that
he wants to lead. As one of his educators I would do my best to
accommodate him in any way that I could, but I would also want to
treat him like a normal student. And I mean that in the way that I want
him to reach his full potential and do everything I can to help him
realize that potential. It will be a collaborative effort and with the
proper information and preparation I am fully confident that our school
can provide Bill with the best possible environment for him to receive a
great education and help him realize his dreams and his goals.

Rationale:
Our class on Inclusion taught us all about learning differences
and how to best work with these students in the classroom. This
document uses what our textbook taught us to apply to a hypothetical
situation in a classroom with a student with special needs. Special
needs students can be a normal and integral part of the classroom
learning environment and it is important to be prepared to allow them
to do so. The other students in the classroom are so important in
these situations and if they are ready and willing the experience can be
beneficial to everyone who is involved.

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